A wire harness is wired on a car with the wire harness inserted into a protector which is a resin molding to protect the wire harness from external interfering members and restrict the wiring line of the wire harness.
There is a case in which the wire harness inserted into the protector is connected to electric apparatuses mounted on a vehicle body by branching branch wires off trunk wires at a necessary position. At the branching position of the branch wires, by winding a tape round the branched branch wires and a branch-wire branching portion, the branch wires are fixed to the branch-wire branching portion projected from the protector body.
As the protector of this kind for use in the wire harness for branching the branch wires from the trunk wires, there is proposed a protector shown in FIG. 6, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 6-2924 (patent document 1).
In the protector, the sectionally concave branch wire receiving portion 1 is projected from the protector body 2, and the placing base 3, for use in the wire harness, which is lower than the side wall 1a is projected from the inner-side bottom surface of the branch wire receiving portion 1. The tape T is wound round the periphery of the branch wire receiving portion 1 and that of the branch wires W1 disposed at the branch wire receiving portion 1 to fix the branch wires W1 to the branch wire receiving portion 1.
When in the protector having the branch wire receiving portion 1, the wiring direction of the branch wires inclines to the protector body 2, as shown in the drawing, the branch wire receiving portion 1 is projected from the protector 2 with the branch wire receiving portion 1 inclining to the protector body 2.
In this case, in the protector disclosed in the patent document 1, as shown in FIG. 7, in winding the tape T round the periphery of the branch wires W1 and that of the branch wire receiving portion 1 by pulling the tape T out of the tape coil with the branch wires W1 disposed at the branch wire receiving portion 1, the direction X in which the tape T is wound inclines to the direction Y in which the protector body 2 extends. Thus the tape coil TC from which the tape T is pulled out contacts the side wall of the protector body 2. Therefore an operator's hand holding the tape coil TC strikes the protector body 2, which makes it difficult to perform a tape-winding operation. Further the tape T wrinkles. Consequently the branch wires W1 is insufficiently fixed to the branch wire receiving portion 1. To perform the tape-winding operation without wrinkling the tape T, the operator is required to pay close attention, which imposes a burden on the operator.
Patent document 1: Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 6-2924